Everett Franklin Spruce (American, 1908-2002). Desert Evening. Acrylic on board . 21-1/4 x 25-1/2 inches (54.0 x 64.8 cm...

Description

Everett Franklin Spruce (American, 1908-2002)
Desert Evening
Acrylic on board
21-1/4 x 25-1/2 inches (54.0 x 64.8 cm)
Signed lower left: Spruce

Born in Conway, Arkansas, Spruce studied with Olin Travis and Thomas Stell at the Dallas Art Institute. He exhibited at the Texas Centennial Exposition and in 1937 was the first Dallas artist to exhibit at New York's Delphic Studios. The Museum of Modern Art acquired a Spruce painting in 1939, and in 1940 he joined the faculty of the University of Texas. His work can also be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and many others across the United States and Texas.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Arts' current exhibition, Texas Made Modern: The Art of Everett Spruce is expected to increase collector interest in his work. Their description refers to Spruce as, "The most celebrated painter from Texas in the first half of the twentieth century [...] His modern, visionary landscapes countered the mythic images of Texas as only a land of cattle and cowboys."

Desert Evening is a superbly abstracted landscape with wonderfully expressive surfaces. In contrast to the softly glowing background, the artist paints the foreground with powerful style, which manages to be simultaneously frenzied and ordered. Everett Spruce creates dynamic yet barely restrained energy, which is moody, hypnotic, and lyrical. Lush color palette make this painting compelling and seductive.


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